..............****************............................................ There and back again, a Canadian woman's tale...................................................

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Rain, windy, back in Ontario.......

Our Location: ONroute, Tilbury, Ontario

(No pictures today, they just won't upload)

It was very warm last night when I went to bed but by morning it had dropped 30 degrees staying steady at 47F/ 8C with over cast skies. At 7 am my dad called to ask what kind of weather we were having and telling us they were having snow, high winds, and it was very cold. We chatted for a few minutes before saying goodbye. Riley and I were quick at getting everything secured and ready to roll just at the time the rain started to fall.

We didn't have to go very far for our first stop, only a few hundred feet to the dump station. I will be honest with you, we made it up the first hill okay until I tried to turn to the right then we had a problem. The washed out hill, the new gravel and well you get the idea. For a few feet we were chattering sideways until I stopped, popped into 4x4 and with a little bit of a heavy foot we managed to get up the hill. I left us in 4x4 until we had arrived safely on the very top ridge at the dump station.

Of course, it started to rain again as soon as my feet hit the grass outside the Dogsled door. No worries I'd donned my bright yellow rain slicker and proceeded to sweat as the temps were too warm for a none breathable coat, but the air was wet and the rain drops cold. Oh well, it's only a short time outside, then I'll head inside, change my shoes and sweater, coat, and be ready to the hit the road. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the water to come out of their hose. They had some kind of valve after the handle on the faucet but the valve just spewed water everywhere except out the end of the hose to rinse the sewer hoses. So I simply turned on the pump and used our own water, a quick rinse, put the hoses away, changed into dry clothes. We were heading out the driveway at 8:10 am. Of course the rain has been coming in waves at this time, now it continues but with a bit more gusto.

Our RV GPS had us wandering around the back roads like two lost sheep. She was basically having us go west for a mile, go north for a mile, go west, go north, etc. I mean really? The Interstate it 12 miles that way, lets just go that way. Finally I just ignored her and off we went finding the Interstate just where I thought it would be, it hadn't moved since last fall. That added at least 30 minutes to our time. I wasn't impressed. I'm going to be chatting with Garmin in the near future, I am not happy and for the price I paid for this thing, it should damn well work properly.

So we finally climbed onto the interstate near exit 103 north, and pushed the Big Dog toward Lima, only 21 miles/ 33 km away. For the entire morning we rolled along at 55 mph/ 88.5 km through the nearly flat state of Ohio. The wind wasn't bad at all when we started out, the rain kind of came and went, never very hard though, I think I only had the wipers on full once due to spray from the truck ahead and beside that seemed to be just sitting on my front bumper and my side door. Not sure why they do that but oh well. I will say the roads were pretty good until we reached the upper edges of Ohio and in to Michigan. It was here that the winds started to be noticeable as well. Michigan is always a nightmare for that stretch around Monroe. I thought for certain I drove over another 5'er that was lost in the hole with just his A/C sticking out. Turns out I didn't, it was just my imagination, but a couple holes were deep enough to get lost in and I was lucky to avoid those ones. I will be driving the middle lane in that stretch from now on though, they'll have to pull me over to give me a ticket before I start driving in the slow lane again until they fix that particular piece of roadway. It's insane. We pulled off at Luna Station for a fuel stop as the prices seemed to be steadily rising, we were seeing only numbers right at or above the $3 per gallon mark. We filled the Big Dog's bowl for $3.09 a gallon. The Big Fella took 22 gallons, or approx 83 liters (1 US Gallon = 3.79 CDN liters). Couldn't squeeze in $50, stopped at $49.50 USD.

We reached the area of construction, which of course were shut down today and motored right along. As we approached Dearborn exit the traffic suddenly came to a very fast slow down, a creep along. Within 15 seconds of the slow down I could see the problem ahead. A big rig had jack knifed in the 'fast' lane into the construction lane and just his back bumper was sticking out a bit into the next lane, he wasn't impeding traffic by more than 6" -8". The driver was out walking around but no one else was on scene so it had literally just happened. We didn't see or hear any evidence of law enforcement, medical or fire aid of any kind. We were past the end of his truck within 30 seconds and on our way. Sorry for his troubles but we didn't see it, he wasn't hurt, we couldn't help, so lets get out of the way. No need to gawk, big deal his nose is kissing his A**, he's fine, keep driving.

We pulled up to the Canada Customs lines which are confusing in that they now have lots of truck lanes open but no arrows pointing you to the car lanes, nor is there an RV lane, which there is going the other way at this crossing. I checked the time, 12:15 pm. We found our way to the car lane, 4 folks ahead, we rolled along and were at the booth within probably 4 to 5 minutes. Nice lady asked us a couple of questions and told us to have a nice day. We were across in a little more than 5 minutes. Yeah us!! Welcome to Canada. Home of the Maple Leaf, Tim Horton's, and $1.25 per liter diesel. So that $49.50 fill up would have cost me $103.75 here in Ontario.

We immediately began seeing the overhead signs warning of freezing rain in Ontario. The temperatures by this time had reached 37F/2.7C and were staying steady. We discussed a few options and Riley checked out the local forecasts. We decided we'd pull in at the first ONRoute (rest area) in Tilbury/Chatham-Kent. Which is where we are right now. We pulled in against the grass edge, but are leaving the slides in to help keep us warmer and in case we receive some freezing precipitation overnight, it won't stretch the slider topper and we won't have to go up there and knock it off. Plus with the slides in we don't rock and roll so much in the wind. We had our heater going within a few minutes (which requires us to run a hose in the window), and the Igloo is nice an toasty.

I called my dad, we chatted for a bit, he's glad we're off the road for the day and I'll let him know tomorrow what we plan on doing. I don't believe the roadways are the issues. I'm pretty certain they will be sanding, salting and doing all that good stuff over the next two days. The issue I believe will be when one is getting off and on the roadways, ramps, side streets, parking lots, etc will not be as well maintained as the major road ways will be. So we're going to sit here until late tomorrow afternoon or Monday late morning before heading out to Hamilton. By then every thing should be cleaned up, salted or melted, as the temperatures will rise a bit in the next day.

So there you have it, we are safely back in Canada, although we will be conserving our battery power a bit as there doesn't appear to be much sun in the forecast for a few days. The temperatures are above the freezing mark and in this area there are no freezing rain warnings posted on the web. Just a bit further along there are of course lots of warnings posted.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. I hope you've had a wonderfully safe and productive day. Thanks again for following along. Please feel free to leave a comment if you like, I read them all. For those don't wish to leave a comment, that's quite alright too, I'm honoured that came by to read!

22 comments:

Welcome back to Canada, the cold white north. Glad you mad it across the border with nit issues and found a nice secure spot for the night. The roads are not great further east hopefully better tomorrow, if not hang in there until things clear up.

Thanks George, Suzie. We had poor internet service yesterday so I couldn't do much but it seems better this morning for some reason. We're going to wait until late today (Sunday) before heading on or tomorrow morning. We'll just see how it goes. No hurry, we have a few days grace anyway.

Thanks for the information Bill. Appreciate it very much. Today (Sunday the forecast is calling for just rain so we may start out and see how things are, or we may just wait for Monday morning and go then. We'll see how things shake out as the day goes on.

Thanks for the welcome!!

Hope you and Patsy are staying warm as well. Clemson has his fur coat so he'll do fine.

Thanks Al, Kelly. We appreciate the welcome. It's Canada, we have to expect this crap I suppose. Too bad it wasn't just a tad warmer and we'd have no issues with ice, but it is what it is. We shall survive. We are indeed getting closer to our home stretch near the end of the month.

Thanks Dave, Cheryl. We're glad to be back in spite of the fuel prices. We love our travels but there really is nothing quite like your own home country.

I'm a chicken driver. If it's not necessary or the weather is bad, I don't drive in anything less than sunshine or cloudy skies. The rain yesterday is usually something I don't do knowingly but we wanted to at least make it across the border before the bad weather hit, in case it hit further south than expected. That would have stranded us much further from our next destination than comfortable. Now we can make it in a few hours.

Glad you are Safely back in Ontario. Earlier today the Tilbury/Chatham corridor was on the list for Freezing Rain. Waiting until after lunch tomorrow before getting back on the road will be a wise choice,Be Safe and Enjoy!

Thanks Rick, Kathy. We appreciate the welcome. We didn't see any evidence of anything other than freezing rain until later in the day. We kept an eye on it through the morning, which is why we stopped short of Dutton, as it was in the freezing warn areas. However this morning (Sunday) I see we've been doused with a bit of ice on the windows, and a few chunks from somewhere when I opened the door to peek out. I think by this afternoon (Sunday) we should be fine but if not we'll wait until tomorrow (Monday) to head out. Thanks for the heads up though, we appreciate it.

Lucky you folks are in a stix 'n brix for this wonderful dash of weather.

Thanks Contessa. It certainly is my first choice but as Mother Nature is a bit temperamental we have to take what she dishes out.

This afternoon (Sunday) was calling for only rain so we'll keep an eye on things and move if we feel it's safe, if not we'll wait until tomorrow when it too is only rain. I'm a chicken driver, I only drive when it's nice or I have to, weather permitting.

Welcome home! What a fine howdoyado, EH? Oh well, the important thing is you are safe and can now take your time. Today, we have snow covering the ice so everything in London is white. The winds are crazy strong so it might be wise to wait it out. Not sure where you can stay closer for the night.

Glad you're safe and sound for the night or two. Wow what weather everyone seems to be having! We were watching the weather news last night and are happy we came home when we did, just missed it all! I'm sure your dad is relieved to know that you are back, and staying put. You're very smart not to drive when the weather is so bad. No reason for it, you'll get there. Stay safe and warm!

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About Me

My daughter Riley travels with me. Riley has learning disabilities and struggles with a number of issues. The travel is helping her start the long slow process of overcoming some of these issues. Forward progress is wonderful but not an every day occurrence, nor is it an every week occurrence. A smile on her face tells me we're making progress, no matter how slight. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.